


Spock vs. Roddenberry

by WeirdLittleStories



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek RPF, Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Gene Roddenberry is jealous, My pen name is truth in advertising, Spock is real, my mind is a strange place
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-02
Updated: 2014-10-02
Packaged: 2018-02-19 13:54:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2390750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeirdLittleStories/pseuds/WeirdLittleStories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While Gene Roddenberry is writing the script for <i>Star Trek: The Motion Picture,</i> Spock refuses to go along with Roddenberry's plans for him, and the two have a serious confrontation.</p>
<p>(This story will upset anyone who worships Gene Roddenberry and thinks he could do no wrong.  I respect the man, but I know that he was flawed, because all of us are.)</p>
<p>Rated Teen for language and for mentions of alcohol and drug use; there's neither sex nor violence in the story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spock vs. Roddenberry

* * *

**Spock vs. Roddenberry  
  
by Weird Little Stories**

 

Spock folded his arms across his chest.  "I will not go."  
  
Gene Roddenberry sighed in exasperation.  It was always annoying when the characters wouldn't behave.  "Of course you'll go!"  
  
Spock scanned the room, searching for one who was not there.  "Where is Ms. Fontana?  She understands me far better than you do.  Her input would be valuable here."    
  
Alone in the room except for Spock, Roddenberry allowed his face to show his petulance.  "Dorothy isn't part of this project!  She took too much of the credit away from me, so I didn't want her on the movie.  Fans liked her 'Journey to Babel' and 'The Enterprise Incident' better than they liked my 'The Omega Glory,' and that's just wrong."  
  
"On the contrary, both of those episodes were far stronger than 'The Omega Glory,' so fan reaction is not surprising.  The fans have, in fact, shown a surprising amount of taste."  
  
Roddenberry laughed sourly.  "You only say that because the fans all love YOU.  That's why you're going to Gol; the fans won't like you as much once you've gone through Kolinahr, so you won't distract their attention away from ME."  
  
Spock regarded his creator with distaste.  "Your jealousy of your own creation is unattractive and inappropriate.  Logically, any affection the fans have for me redounds to your own credit."  
  
"Look, Spock, I created you for two reasons:  to show that aliens existed and to have someone to spout the info-dump lines.  Coon was the one who gave you a sense of humor, and Dorothy was the one who made you so fucking noble that women swoon over you.  I created _Kirk_ to be the hero, to save the day, to get the girl, to live out all of my fantasies."  
  
Spock stiffened, troubled at hearing his commanding officer relegated to a wish-fulfillment fantasy.  "The two things are not incompatible.  Captain Kirk is a fine hero, and it is a privilege to serve under him.  Neither my integrity nor my sense of humor detracts from his character in the slightest."  
  
Roddenberry waved that off.  "I was gonna just kill you off, but everyone said we couldn't have a _Star Trek_ movie without you.  Then I was gonna have you away on Vulcan, recovering from a nervous breakdown, but Nimoy wouldn't go for it; he said you wouldn't do that."  
  
Spock shook his head.  "I would not.  My mind is admirably balanced and has withstood the rigors of deep-space exploration for more than a decade.  It was you, yourself, who wrote 'The Menagerie' and who credited me with having served under Captain Pike for eleven years, four months, and five days."  Spock lifted a questioning brow.  "Do you really believe that a mere three years under Captain Kirk would cause me to suffer insanity?"  
  
"It was five years!  It's a five-year mission; it says so in the opening voice-over."  
  
"I am well aware that you specified a five-year mission because that was the quantity of material that was believed to be necessary before a program could be successfully syndicated.  The fact remains that the series lasted for only three years.  And if Captain Pike explored the galaxy for more than eleven years, surely Captain Kirk would do the same?  It is more logical to believe that we were assigned an ongoing mission."  
  
"Nah, I've decided on a five-year mission so that I can have Kirk promoted to Admiral at the end of it."  
  
Spock frowned.  "At the age of 37?  Starfleet Command would not be so foolish as to give their greatest captain a desk job when he is still young enough to command a starship.  Starship captains as competent as Kirk are vanishingly rare, and Starfleet Command would be ill-advised to squander the opportunity to have him in that role."  
  
"Yeah, well, I'm the writer, and I decide.  You're undergoing Kolinahr — that's my compromise with Nimoy, after he refused to play you if I made you insane — and Kirk's been promoted to Admiral."  
  
Spock looked Vulcanly appalled.  "Both of those choices are absurd, nor are those the only flaws in your script.  The storyline for the movie is one that _Star Trek_ has used before — much more successfully, I might add — in an episode called 'The Changeling' by John Meredyth Lucas.  The tone of the script is vastly different from that of the program during its most successful episodes, and you have made special effects the star of the show, rather than the characters.  All in all, I would suggest that you abandon this particular effort and begin again."  
  
"I wanted to do a time-travel plot, one where the _Enterprise_ goes back in time, and you shoot JFK, but the studio wouldn't go for it."  Roddenberry sighed.  "It's a pity they wouldn't let me do that, because that would have _really_ undermined your popularity!  Having you shoot the most revered president since Lincoln would have lost you a ton of fans."  
  
Spock sniffed the air.  "You have been drinking again.  Your work suffers when you drink to excess."  
  
Roddenberry snorted.  "Nonsense!  Drinking frees up my writing, makes it easier for me to come up with wild ideas.  I'm at my best when I'm drinking."  
  
Spock sighed.  "Legions of alcoholics have had similar ideas, and all of them have been mistaken.  The first faculty impaired by alcohol is judgment, which is why so many inebriated persons believe themselves to be far more charming or humorous than their behavior warrants."  
  
"God damn it, I won't have one of my own characters lecture me on my drinking!  And I won't have you refusing to undergo Kolinahr, either.  I own you, and you'll do whatever I tell you to do."  
  
Spock assumed his stiffest posture.  "Like most sentient creatures, I am owned solely by myself, regardless of what claims others may make.  
  
Gene Roddenberry rolled his eyes.  "You're not a sentient creature; you're a fictional character."  
  
Spock raised an eyebrow.  "Are you sure?"  
  
"Completely sure!  I created you, and I can do anything I want with you."  
  
Spock shook his head.  "You created my outline, but that outline was simplistic and did not live.  Mr. Nimoy breathed life into me, and Ms. Fontana filled in that bare outline with depth and color.  While it is true that I would not _exist_ without you; without them, I would not _live._ "  
  
Roddenberry scowled.  "Nimoy's an even bigger problem than Dorothy.  He made up the Vulcan neck pinch without checking with ME first!  He wasn't hired as a writer; his job is to wear the fucking ears and be your goddamned face, and that's ALL.  I chewed him out but good when he added the Vulcan neck pinch without getting my approval, but did that rein him in?  Noooo.  He had to go and invent the Vulcan salute, too."  
  
Spock stiffened, not liking this censure of the man who carried his katra.  "Your objections are illogical.  Ms. Fontana and Mr. Nimoy increased the popularity of the program that you created, thus increasing your own popularity.  If it had not been for their contributions, the program might well have been cancelled partway through the first season, and the acclaim you so desire would not exist at all."  
  
Roddenberry sniffled, on the verge of tears.  "Everybody says I'm a one-hit wonder.  _Police Story_ didn't go anywhere.  _Genesis II_ didn't go anywhere.  _Questor_ didn't go anywhere.  _Star Trek_ is my one real success, but people want to give part of the credit to Gene Coon and Bob Justman and Dorothy Fontana and Bill Shatner and fucking Nimoy."  
  
"As is only just, since they did, in fact, contribute greatly to the program.  We would have neither the Prime Directive nor the Klingons nor the sense of the _Enterprise_ crew as members of a family without the contributions of Mr. Coon.  Although Mr. Justman's primary function was to ensure that the production remained within its budget, he made many creative suggestions and should have received story credit on several episodes."  Spock paused and looked at Roddenberry.  "None of this undermines your own contributions, which were both large and essential."   
  
Roddenberry sneered.  "I know you love Dorothy and Nimoy, too."  
  
"Mr. Nimoy is a fine actor, and like most actors, he is a highly emotional man.  Bringing me to life cost him far more than he believed it would when he accepted the role, but such is his integrity as an artist that he continued to perform admirably even after that cost became apparent."  Spock raised a brow.  "Such was the toll it took on him to restrain his emotions to the necessary degree that he could well have undergone the nervous breakdown that you envisioned for me.  It is perhaps fortunate that the program was cancelled before that could come to pass."  
  
Roddenberry made a face.  "Actors, pah!  They're a dime a dozen in this town, and any of them would have jumped at the chance to be in a weekly series.  Nimoy should show a little more gratitude."  
  
"Mr. Nimoy showed his gratitude by working as hard as humanly possible and by doing the best work of which he was capable.  Nor was that work as pedestrian as you appear to believe, as witness the fact that he was nominated for an Emmy award for all three seasons of _Star Trek._   Another actor could have _portrayed_ me, but it is unlikely that another actor could have brought me to _life._ "  
  
"And now that you're alive, you're trying to take over my script!  I'd have been better off if you'd stayed a cardboard character, who could be forced into whatever direction the script calls for."  Roddenberry sat and thought for a moment.  "Maybe I'll write in brain damage for you.  We can make it physical brain damage, caused by radiation or something, so Nimoy won't have room to object, and once you're a shadow of your former self, I'll have a lot easier time writing you."  
  
Aghast, Spock looked at his creator.  "It is you who have brain damage; I believe that decades of alcohol abuse have begun to produce dementia."  Swiftly, Spock stepped behind his creator and applied the Vulcan neck pinch that Mr. Nimoy had so thoughtfully invented.  He caught Roddenberry as he fell, picked him up, and deposited him gently on the couch in the man's office.    
  
Once Roddenberry was out of the way, Spock sat down at the typewriter.  He had never done creative writing before, but he was familiar with the classic literature of Vulcan, Earth, Tellar, Andoria, Ardana, Zaran, and many others.  It should be a simple matter to abstract the structure and themes common to the more popular works and to create a script that used those themes and structure but with fresh and original content.    
  
Since the work was intended for an Earth audience, it should play upon the emotions of that audience.  While he himself strictly controlled his emotions, of course, he had been studying emotions all of his life.  One could not control one's emotions, after all, without a deep understanding of the objects to be so controlled.  He was certain that he could play upon the audience's emotions adequately, and in any case, the structure of classic literature showed him how to posit a dilemma, how to create ever-increasing tension, and how to resolve that tension in a way that would produce satisfaction, even pleasure, in the audience.    
  
Spock's long, skillful fingers flew as he wrote a script that would allow his extraordinary captain to show himself to full advantage, that would allow he, himself, to support his captain with his intellect, his loyalty, and the fan-pleasing exercise of one mind meld and two neck pinches.  Dr. McCoy was also allotted a chance to shine, since his curmdgeon-with-a-heart-of-gold was necessary to the emotional tone of the script and balanced Spock's own controlled demeanor.  Mr. Sulu and Ms. Uhura were also given their moments to show what they were made of, as they had been shamefully underutilized during the three years of the series.  
  
As Spock typed, he became aware that creative writing was far more satisfying than logic would suggest it should be.  He was concocting fiction, creating events that had never actually occurred, to people who were of his own brand of limited reality.  And yet the exercise was involving, even exhilarating.  It would be many years before his durable Vulcan body became unable to pursue the rigorous life he currently enjoyed, but once he became too debilitated by age to function as a Starfleet officer, perhaps then he would have more than science to occupy his mind ... and to occupy the heart that his mother, his doctor, and his captain all insisted that he had.  Perhaps a strictly controlled Vulcan could write emotional stories — under a pseudonym, of course — to exercise the humanity that he could not excise.    
  
In any case, the current work should be more interesting for his friends and more pleasing to the fans than a tired retread of "The Changeling."  It was also far more probable than the ludicrous suggestions that Kirk would allow anyone to promote him off of the bridge of the _Enterprise_ or that Spock would have learned so little from relating to humans — or would think so little of his friendship with them — that he would willingly choose to obliterate his Vulcan emotions, rather than control them.  
  
Stopping only long enough to check on Mr. Roddenberry and to neck pinch him again when he showed signs of regaining consciousness, Spock polished his script and typed far into the night.

 

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. It should NOT be assumed that I hate Mr. Roddenberry or wish to vilify him. I believe that Mr. Roddenberry's weaknesses were very similar to his strengths, in that they were both larger than life. Since most of us are not larger than life, we are fascinated by those who are, and it makes sense that both his strengths and his weaknesses were on a similarly grand scale. I will always be grateful to Mr. Roddenberry for creating _Star Trek,_ even though I dislike some of his subsequent actions.
> 
> 2\. The idea that Gene Roddenberry was a serious alcoholic, to the point that he had brain damage during the last few years of his life, is taken from the biography _Gene Roddenberry: The Myth and the Man Behind Star Trek_ by Joel Engel. According to Mr. Engel (who quotes Mr. Roddenberry's physician), Mr. Roddenberry was not just a serious alcoholic, he also abused a variety of prescription drugs, as well as cocaine. This combination of drugs — in conjunction with high blood pressure and diabetes — is said to have produced a dementia caused by cerebral vascular disease and encephalopathy. 
> 
> 3\. The exchange "You're a fictional character." "Are you sure?" was taken from Leonard Nimoy's second autobiography, _I Am Spock._ In that book, of course, the exchange was between Spock and Mr. Nimoy, not between Spock and Mr. Roddenberry.
> 
> 4\. I made up the idea that Mr. Roddenberry was jealous of Spock for fictional purposes; I have no idea whether or not it's true. I thought sending Spock through Kolinahr was a terrible idea and horribly out of character, and when I was wondering why Mr. Roddenberry would do such a thing, this is what came to mind.
> 
> 5\. a. It is true that Mr. Roddenberry wanted Spock to have had a nervous breakdown in TMP, but Mr. Nimoy refused to play that.  
> b. It's also true that for one of the Star Trek movies, Mr. Roddenberry suggested a plot where the _Enterprise_ went back in time, and Spock shot President Kennedy, but everyone involved shot down this suggestion instead.  
> c. Likewise, it is true that "five-year mission" was used on the opening voice-over because at the time it was written, people believed that a series had to run for five years to be worth syndicating. Luckily, _Star Trek_ was syndicated after all, even though it ran for only three years, earning it a large number of fans who were too young to watch it — or even not yet born — when the series was originally broadcast in 1966 - 1969.  
> d. And, as most fans know, it was indeed Mr. Nimoy who made up both the Vulcan neck pinch and the Vulcan salute. And Mr. Roddenberry was NOT pleased when he learned of the neck pinch and told Mr. Nimoy not to do anything like that again. Luckily, Mr. Nimoy did not listen. :-)  
> e. A lot of other stuff is true, too, but this author's note has gone on long enough. ;-)
> 
> 6\. a. [Dorothy Fontana](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/D.C._Fontana) was the story editor for Star Trek's first two seasons and also wrote several episodes, including the ones mentioned in the story. She was considered the "Vulcan expert" of the behind-the-scenes staff and was the one who made up such Spockian details as the fact that his father was an ambassador.  
> b. [Gene Coon](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Gene_L._Coon) was a writer and producer on Star Trek during the second half of the first season and the first half of the second season. In spite of working on the series for only a year, he created many details and was highly influential.  
> c. [Bob Justman](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Robert_Justman) was a producer on Star Trek who had a finger in nearly every pie and whose wit was essential in pointing out some of the sillier ideas in bad scripts.
> 
> 7\. Some of the ideas for this story came up because of a conversation I had with [Geriatricfool](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Geriatricfool). She shouldn't be blamed for the story, though; this nonsense is all my own. :-)
> 
> 8\. I have a chronic illness that leaves me non-functional most of the time, which means that I am rarely able to reply to comments. I do read them all with great attention, though, and I do cherish every single one of them, even when my health doesn't permit me to reply. I apologize for being so limited in what I can do.
> 
> 9\. Disclaimer: This is a fan-made work, not for profit, and no infringement is intended. I mean, if *I* owned Star Trek, you know that TMP would have been totally different! As well as a lot of other things. ;-)
> 
> 10\. Thanks for reading!


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